A police officer in Prince Albert has been given an absolute discharge after being convicted of assaulting an Aboriginal woman who was in custody.
Michael Ozar pleaded guilty to the offense which occurred in October of 2010.
It was then he pressed his boot to the back of the head of Cheryl Morin while she was being searched at the police lock-up.
Morin had been brought in on a charge of intoxication and was scuffling with two guards on the floor when the offence occurred.
In the courtroom this morning, Judge Henry Goliath said it wasn’t clear from the video whether there was any forceful contact between Ozar’s foot and Morin’s head — but he said it was clear the prisoner was quite intoxicated, loud, obnoxious and very uncooperative.
He also ruled the injuries she claimed to have suffered at the police station couldn’t be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
Speaking outside the courthouse, Morin fought back tears:
“They didn’t see how I came home and looked to my children . . . no. That makes me very, very angry and I’m very, very scared.”
“Family told me: ‘Cheryl, you can’t take this no more . . . you got to report it’ — so I reported it. Now, it’s my fault. Now, I look like I’m the bad person. I’m not the bad person.”
Ozar declined to be interviewed, but his lawyer Michael Klassen, called the decision a relief.
Klassen adds it will be up to the Prince Albert Police Service to decide whether any internal discipline is warranted.